Paul Pogba says he is determined to play for Manchester United again before the end of the campaign and has told the club’s fans: ‘It’s not over’.
United interim boss Ralf Rangnick all but confirmed Pogba’s imminent exit at his pre-match press conference on Friday.
The Frenchman looks set to leave Old Trafford when his contract expires at the end of the season, and may have played his last match for the club after suffering a calf injury this week.
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Rangnick expects Pogba to leave in the summer and was at odds to explain the player’s recent struggles at when asked about the player ahead of his team’s trip to Arsenal.
‘It’s difficult to say. If myself or other coaches knew, it would be easier to change that, but I don’t know,’ Rangnick said.
‘Right now it doesn’t make sense to think about that because he won’t be available for [the Arsenal match] and most likely not for the upcoming games.
‘As it seems right now, he will not renew his contract and, I don’t know, maybe the club or Erik will not want to renew his contract. It’s most likely he won’t be here next season.
‘He’s a player who won the World Cup; he’s such a good player that he was a regular starter for France. We all know what kind of potential he has and what kind of good player he can be.
‘He was like quite a few other players struggling to get his best performance sustainably on the pitch for a team like Man United.
‘This has not only been the case this season or in the past couple of weeks. As far as I remember, it was also the case in earlier years.
But Pogba, taking to social media during United’s game with Arsenal, has seemingly hit back at Rangnick, writing: ‘Absolutely gutted to not be able to help the team in today’s game.
‘I will work even harder to come back stronger and hopefully before the end of the season. It’s not over. Thank you all for your support, United we would stand!’
Former Arsenal and Chelsea defender William Gallas launched an attack on Pogba earlier this week, calling him mentally weak and tipping him for a move to PSG.
‘To play in the Premier League is really difficult,’ Gallas said. ‘It’s really tough, there is a lot of intensity and you have to repeat your performance almost every game, it’s not easy.
‘Some players can do it because they’re strong in their mind. Some players can’t do it, they play one game and their level will be very high and then in the two next games they’ll be average.
‘For the quality that Pogba has, you need to be consistent so that’s why people are a little angry with him. He’s not [mentally] strong enough and his performances show he’s not strong enough to be consistent for one season.
‘He only did it when he was at Juventus and then he joined Man United. Since then, he hasn’t had that consistency, so he’s not strong enough. There are not too many clubs who can sign him, so maybe he’ll go to PSG.’
